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Biographical details

Professor Mary Collins (Chebib) was awarded her PhD from Griffith University in 1994. After a six-year postdoctoral position at the Department of Pharmacology, she was appointed as Lecturer at the University of Sydney in 2000, Senior Lecturer in 2003, Associate Professor in 2007 and Professor of Pharmaceutical Neuroscience in 2012.

Professor Collins (Chebib) received a number of awards including the ASCEPT Young Investigator Award, RACI Biota Award, entry to Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc (RACI) (2006), and the University of Sydney Faculty of Pharmacy Higher Degree Supervision Award (2008).

Professor Collins (Chebib) is a member of the Pharmaceutical Subcommittee of the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee for the Therapeutic Goods Administration and associate editor for the journal Amino Acids. She has served as served as Chair of the RACI Biomolecular Chemistry Division and RACI NSW Branch President.

Professor Collins (Chebib) has developed a vigorous research program in the areas of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology focusing on Cys-loop receptors, particularly GABA and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Her research focuses on developing subtype selective modulators along with identifying where they bind on the channels. Such studies are essential for drug discovery ventures and for delineating the role each subtype plays in brain physiology and pathophysiology.

Research interests

GABA receptors

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors

The rapid advances in molecular biology and genetics have contributed towards the discovery and isolation of a large number of receptors and proteins that may be targets to treat various disease states. My team focuses on studying GABA and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and their involvement in anxiety, sleep disorders and learning and memory.

Structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies involving structural variations of both the agents and their receptor targets (termed complementary structure-activity studies) play important roles in drug design and development. Of particular focus is the structure-function studies of GABA and nicotinic receptors using site-directed mutagenesis in combination with reactive probes help identify amino acids that are important in the binding and function of receptors. In addition, animal models to evaluate the effects of important ligands establish a link between the in vitro and in vivo effects. Such studies are vital to the discovery of drugs that interact selectively with particular receptor subtypes and in receptors that may have inheritable mutations.

Halliday, J., Collins, M., McLeod, M. (2010). Synthesis and biological evaluation of a new family of constrained azabicyclic homocholine analogues. Australian Journal of Chemistry: an international journal for chemical science, 63(5), 808-812. [More Information]

Halliday, J., Collins, M., McLeod, M. (2010). Synthesis and biological evaluation of a new family of constrained azabicyclic homocholine analogues. Australian Journal of Chemistry: an international journal for chemical science, 63(5), 808-812. [More Information]